Friday, August 07, 2009

Friday Flash Fiction: "Mutiny"

Back when Star Trek: The Next Generation was on the air, I got a little annoyed with them in the third season when they had a whole run of episodes with titles of the form "The [X]:" "The Enemy," "The Price," "The Defector," "The Hunted." The episodes themselves were still pretty good, but I felt it was lazy and uncreative of them to not choose more interesting and evocative titles.

Then, of course, in the fourth season, they started dropping the definite article altogether: "Family," "Brothers," "Legacy," "Reunion." I suspect a large part of my annoyance was because I was still in trufan mode, and longer titles made it easier for me to keep an entire episode guide in my head. It's easy to remember that "Galaxy's Child" is the one about the power-eating space creature, but "Ethics?" That could be anything. SRSLY.

Of course, now that I'm putting out a new story every week, myself, I see how unimportant the title seems as part of the overall process. All is forgiven, TNG!